Need some info about bass pickup types!

[eskilrask]

Hello fellas, new guy here!

I'm mainly a guitarist, but I have played bass far longer. While I'm a huge guitar gear nerd, it just occured to me a while ago that I know hardly anything about bass gear. I'm planning to make my own self-assembled bass soon, so now I need some info - mainly about pickups.

Because what are the differences between various pickup types? I honestly don't know the difference, but I haven't done straight A/B'ing of different basses either. Could someone give me a quick rundown on the following different pickup types (main characteristics and differences):

P-style
J-style
MM-style
Soapbar
(and any others, if I'm missing them)

I have looked on the internet for this info, but in vain. It seems that there's a lot less gear-whoring going on for bassists than for guitarists. So please, help a fellow bassist out here.

 

[nyde7]

Probably because Bass pickups vary so widely and you will find that within each of the "styles" of pickups you mentioned, is a multitude of brands which gives many varied sounds. As with guitars, there are humbucking and single pole. With basses you will find there are "passive" and "active" systems (active having some type of preamp). You will find it is easier to look for what kind of sound (or sounds) you are looking for and then seek the overall system that will suit that sound. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Stealth]

As nyde7 said there are single-coil and humbucking pickups. You can also distinguish them by their width (in the direction of the strings), or as it's also know, the pickup aperture - some pickups have naturally wider coils. Some pickups have magnets as polepieces, others have metal polepieces and a magnet underneath, some have a magnetic bar in the middle and some have metal blades running along the length with a magnet underneath.

Single-coil pickups, as their name says, have only a single coil with several thousand winds around the polepieces. A typical narrow-aperture example is a Jazz bass pickup, a wider-aperture example is a Rickenbacker pickup. A single-coil alone will hum because it also picks up 50/60 Hz line hum. Using two single-coils that have opposing magnetic polarities (measured, for insance, on top) and opposing wiring (one's start wire is considered hot, while the other's start wire is ground) eliminates hum. Single coils usually have a bright tone on their own.

A humbucker is basically two single-coils stuck close. Again, they can be either narrow-aperture (soapbar humbuckers like the ones on, say, a Yamaha RBX375) or wide-aperture (MusicMan pickup), but some can be made into even narrower shapes (explained below). As their name says, they automatically "buck hum". There are five total types of humbuckers:

• classic humbucker - an MM pickup is just that, two coils right one behind the other, usually have
• offset humbucker - a P pickup, one coil is always closer to the neck, has a warm tone and deep or a more balanced, middly tone, depending on which coil is closer to the neck (bass side or treble side)
• inline humbucker - usually used with a narrow aperture shape like a Jazz pickup, one coil covers half the strings, the other covers the other half. Usually close to a single coil, but not quite
• stacked humbucker - again, usually with Jazz pickups, one coil is above the other like a stack of pancakes. Again, usually close to a single coil, but "not it"
• sidewinder humbucker - the coils are sideways, while the single row of magnets/polepieces faces up - the best example is the neck humbucker on a Gibson EB0/EB3

Head spinning yet? The sound can also be changed by wiring the coils of a humbucker in series or parallel. Series gives a warm, bassy/midrangy tone, parallel gives a bright, trebly tone, though quieter than series. And, additionally, if one coil of the humbucker is shut off, you get a single coil. And you can use the same logic when combining two pickups, as well.

To give a few examples:

• P-bass "tetris block" pickup - offset humbucking, wide-aperture, series - usually thumpy and deep
• J-bass with two standard pickups - single, narrow aperture, parallel - bright and occasionally growly
• MusicMan pickup - classic humbucker, wide-aperture, parallel (has a preamp, so that makes the treble even more pronounced) - snappy
• Gibson EB0 - sidewinder humbucker, narrow aperture (remember, only one row of thin polepieces), series - deep and even muddy

 

[eskilrask]

I get most of that from my guitar knowledge.

The thing I'm interested in is just basically knowing stuff like: which pickup style is best suited for slap (and in what position!?)? Which one do people use for distorted death metal tones? What's the most common funk-style pickup? I know I ought to read around myself on different bassists and stuff, but it would be a lot easier if someone could just give me a quick rundown!

My current bass is a Sandberg Terra 4-string bass with a MM-style Sandberg Powerhumbucker. Great bass, sounds and plays phenomenally, but I sort of want a bass with a wee bit more versatility and possibly explore the bass gear market some more.

My current idea for the bass I want to build is this:
Black P-body with a black 3-ply pickguard (not sure about wood yet. I'll probably go with a used MIM body) slapped together with a Warmoth birdseye maple neck and fretboard. I want a 3-band preamp (bass, mids, treble) along with a master volume and a balance control. Pickupwise I'm thinking for an MM in the neck and a P (or a J) in the bridge. Any thoughts?

 

[Stealth]

Sorry if the post sounded condescending - wasn't sure how much you knew from beforehand.

The classical slap tone is associated with a Jazz bass, so that's two narrow-aperture J pickups, at the neck and bridge, wired in parallel. They can be inlines or stacks if you hate single-coil hum.
The modern slap tone is associated with an MM bass with one wide-aperture MM pickup in the so-called sweet spot, wired in parallel.
Not sure about distorted death metal, but most such bassists go for two medium-aperture soapbar humbuckers (neither jazz nor MM in width, but inbetween), internally wired in series, wired together in parallel.
Power metal? Can be anything from J (Jason Newsted formerly of Metallica) to P (Steve Harris of Iron Maiden).
Funk? Slap, see above. Fingerstyle? P-bass has that classic, Rocco Prestia finger funk sound.

An MM in the neck and a J or P in the bridge is very rare - the opposite is more common. I have a J/MM and it's a very versatile thing that can go from latin to metal in a sweep of the blend control, but I know how a P/MM sounds through Andy C Saxton on YouTube. I think I've seen one MM/J on Talkbass, but can't find the thread.

 

[FunkMetalBass]

Slap typically comes in a few different sounds. Many go for the Marcus Miller slap tone, which is slightly scooped and favors the bridge pickup in a pair of jazz pickups. The others tend to go for the Flea slap sound, which uses an MM pickup.

I like your current bass design, although its very nontraditional. Most bassists put a humbucker in the bridge position and a P in the "neck" position or a few have a dual-P setup.

 

[eskilrask]

Wow, thanks for the great response - exactly what I was looking for! It seems that I should go for a P/MM (how odd that bass pickup abbreviation goes the opposite direction of guitar, haha!) then. I like the thought of a very deep and growly bass tone.

Can I use a preamp with a regular set of passive pickups though?

 

[Stealth]

Yes, you can. Most "active" basses usually have passive pickups and a preamp (active tone control), unlike guitars where most "active" ones have active pickups (EMG60/81/85/89s and similar). I have three active basses, two have passive pickups and a preamp, one has active pickups (EMG HBs) and passive tone controls. If you wish, I can elaborate in a few hours so you'll know the ballpark values for potentiometers.

 

[Korladis]

You can slap with most pickup types, and get distorted sounds from most pickup types. There are no rules. However, slap tends to be done with two J style pickups, or a P style pickup, or some combination thereof, or MM style humbuckers.

Bassists have gotten distorted tones out of all kinds of pickups. I myself use single coil Rickenbacker type pickups, but you can use P-pickups, J-pickups, MM style pickups, soapbars, even mudbuckers. The tonal differences clean also apply when overdriven.

 

[walterw]

good answers so far! let me toss in this nugget:

a "versatile" bass doesn't usually mean one with a bunch of pickups and a bunch of EQ knobs and switches; a plain ol' stock fender P or especially a J can cover pretty much every style of music out there.

i suggest getting more familiar with how stock basses sound before trying to build one when you have no idea what you're looking for or why; less chance of spending a bunch of time and money only to discover you hate the result!

 

[Korladis]

Another thing that's important is pickup position. On bass, there's typically a lot more territory between the bridge and the neck, so there are lots of different places you can stick pickups. Changing the pickup's position will drastically alter the sound, in some cases even more than using a completely different pickup. There are tons of variations with bass.